XLTE is basically how Verizon has taken the AWS (Band 4) LTE spectrum that they own and deployed it in cities to strengthen the data experience for customers. We are talker faster peak data speeds and a minimum of double the bandwidth in high traffic areas. And that is basically it. Verizon has finally put to use their AWS spectrum to help make their LTE network better for all of its customers.

Nearly all devices that Verizon currently sells already work with XLTE, so customers see the benefit automatically. More than 35% of devices running on Verizon’s network can take advantage. There is no separate plan or service to activate. If you have a supported phone, many of which we have detailed here, you can experience XLTE today.

Category

Tags

CollapseShowComments

ok dumb question time. Anyone confirm use of XLTE / band 4 and has unlimited data still? I’m waiting for the “gotcha”

Sundedo

There is no change to your account when they activate these new frequencies. The only thing that changes if you have a phone capable of using Band 4 is you gain access to a 20 MHz pipe instead of 10, hence the faster speed.

Oooh yeah, witness the power of XLTE on my GNote3 and cower in fear at its…oh wait, jk…

Lonnie Brownell

San Diego: Ping 43ms, DL 64.58mbps, UL 21.63mbps. Nice.

BillySuede

<—– lives in williamsburg, brooklyn with a note 3. anyone know if i'm up and how to verify? thanks in advance and sorry if it's been addressed already in some fashion.

James Newton

Florida Keys

Neil Fujiwara

I find it funny that wireless speeds are eclipsing wired speeds offered by ISPs.

Allyn K C

Believe it or not, this is an improvement (and yes, the LTE icon is active): ping 107ms, download: 1.19Mbps, upload: 0.25Mbps …

That’s at my office during a work day. In the evenings and weekends it bounces back to more respectable levels at the same location – but during the day, total crap. I think there’s just too many users trying to access not enough towers during the day.

On the upside, this is better than what I was seeing a couple months ago when I last tested it.

Sundedo

The area you’re in may have some signal pollution along with some capacity issues. If you’re signal level looks good but the signal quality if poor, you can see those kinds of results.

Sitting at my desk in our office, my phone shows around a -90 RSRP. But my RSRQ is terrible because I’m seeing 6-8 sites, which limits my speeds to around 3-5Mbps.

Same location using a device on AWS gets me around 80Mbps 🙂

EvelynBen

Unfortunately,, this timetable isn’t right… For flawless course of action of cities and for further brief detail of XLTE visit here http://goo.gl/uxVE7A

annaarron

nice sharing..

rob281

Screen shot of the sweet speeds I’m seeing

rob281

Kicking ass in Houston

Jason K

63.35 download, 20.57 upload…burbank, ca

jgemberton

Is this going to help them with rolling out VoLTE any quicker?

Sundedo

Not really. AWS is being overlaid with the 700MHz LTE spectrum. This will help with speed and capacity.

VoLTE is more dependent on 1-to-1 coverage parity with the legacy 1x network.

jgemberton

That’s too bad, because VoLTE is what I’m really looking towards – get rid of the proprietary CDMA radios and open everything up. Not to mention less radios to provide power to and switch between.

Sundedo

I agree, the power savings will be pretty significant. But there won’t be any VoLTE-only devices for some time. I would say it will be a couple years.

Trust me, VZW wants to light up VoLTE as much as anyone. The CDMA licensing is a large chunck of money. But VoLTE isn’t launching until the coverage and the core network can provide the same reliability as the legacy network. It’s getting close, but there are still issues being worked.

Synacks

Nothing here in Atlanta yet

nomar

thank god you are here to tell us.

Synacks

I see your trolling tactics are in full effect. I’m so proud that you took my advice!

Jesus Christ

What?? Atlanta has had Band 4 AWS for months now. Been using it on my Note 3 in various places, one being McDonough,Georgia which is about 25-30 minutes south of Atlanta. Have a Note 3. Use this number in the dialer for Note 3 phones to see which band you are on. *#0011#
Even before the OTA updates for the Note 3 on Verizon that automatically turned on Band 4, I was able to manually change my settings to allow it.

Nothing on my GS5 and like James said that number doesn’t work. Sitting outside my apartment in full coverage in Buckhead. Should be able to get it unless there is a setting that hasn’t been updated on the phone.

This *#0011#, this is exactly what I was looking for to see if I was on Band 13 or 4.

Thank you sir.

Taylor Abrahamson

I don’t get it, was anything announced that is new that we didn’t already know about / haven’t been using already for the last 6 months? As far as I can tell this whole thing was just them giving it a new name “XLTE” instead of “AWS Band 4” we’ve all been calling it.

Open1Your1Eyes0

Is anyone aware of any app (non-root) that can check what band your device is connected to?

The real advantage to the AWS spectrum is the deployment of 20MHz channels. This is where the bulk of the speed is coming from. In areas that don’t have 20MHz contiguous they’ll use carrier aggregation to get the bandwidth. This of course is dependent on the cell hardware vendor supporting it. Most do, through upgraded software.

Sporttster

Still nothing in South Bend, IN area….54ms ping, 21.15 mbps down, 3.42 up

fritzo2162

Wow, getting 50MB on my M8, but people in my same office on a Windows phone and Moto X are only getting 20Mb. What gives?

AmazinglyStupid

Bakersfield, Modesto, San Luis Obispo….WTF! Half the cities listed in California are empty. Meanwhile i’m pulling up to 5.0mbps in the Inland Empire. Great work Verizon./s

Rysh

Doubled my speed here in Columbus, OH. Went from mid 20s down to mid 40s down. Upload was about the same around 13.

mcdonsco

On the outskirts of Portland Oregon here…no improvement…fairly certain its because I’m in a rural area though, but at least I get 4g here.

Jeremiah Hawkins

2x bandwidth… So are they bringing back unlimited data? One can only wish.

how will I know if I am connected to XLTE? Does it display differently in my notification bar? Or will I have to look in About Phone > Status > Mobile Network Type?

Jacob Dagenais

You won’t know because its just LTE using different bands. The only way you will know is if Verizon was to install software on your phone to tell you your using that LTE band which they probably won’t do because then they’ll get calls of people asking what’s xlte or why don’t I have xlte when you said I would.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

In the back of mind I’m still on Verizon…..so my interest is always piqued when I see verizon news…….Then I’m back to reality on my much cheaper GoPhone plan.

Any way to find out if you’re currently using band 4? BESIDES a speed test

mcdonsco

I was wondering the same; will we see “xlte” instead of 4glte by our signal bars or something?

Jacob Dagenais

Not unless Verizon pushes out an update to add a way for you to know because xlte is just LTE…

rexRUGER3030

The app LTE discovery will detect which network your phone is currently on. Unfortunately in Albuquerque i’m still on band 13. Time to play the waiting game

Jacob Dagenais

I dont think that app is correct because I’m on LTE band 4 but it claims I’m on 10 which is just a subset of 4. Also when on HSPA+ it still claims I’m on 10 even though my carrier only uses bands 5 and 2. It appears that the number in the brackets refers to the number of groupings of information under the network info header.

edit: this could be perfectly normal. I don’t usually test the connection unless I’m at home which is far outside of town. I only get around 9mb dl there.

Aj Bastedo

Non xlte city in upstate NY …30 Mbps down 10 up ….what speeds do everyone else see on vzw? Or any network

burkett375

I’m the cuse and haven’t seen anything speedier….in fact it dropped from around 10mbps to about 5 this morning

mcdonsco

10mb down 5 up

James Newton

What city?

Aj Bastedo

Little falls, NY

DC_Guy

I’ve been enjoying around 70 Mbps down since then flipped the switch on the AWS spectrum in my area. I know that both the Note 3 (and presumably the S5) and the iPhone 5s can take advantage of AWS. That coupled with my unlimited data is pretty sweet indeed.